Number of failed banks in US nears 100 this year

The New York Times reports that, after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy and the subsequent joint action to spend $700 billion to save the institutions deemed too big to fail, many small banks were left to die by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and their assets given to stronger players. The number of failed banks now stands at 98. Some experts predict that as many as 1,000 banks may have to be closed in this cycle of collapses. However, as long as the big players are still in game, the smaller banks can die: more than 8,000 of them jointly hold only 15% of the banking industry’s $13.3 billion in assets.